This volume represents the main papers delivered by both prominent and rising philosophers at the 1999 SOFIA conference in Mazatlan, Mexico. The volume contains twenty substantial papers spanning important issues of current interest including sexuality and consent, rights and scarcity, democracy and individualism, and the nature of law and the value of punishment.

Ernest Sosa is a Professor of Philosophy at Brown University and Rutgers University. He is author of Knowledge in Perspective (Cambridge University Press, 1991) and of papers in metaphysics and epistemology.

Enrique Villanueva is a Research Fellow at the Instituto de Investigaciones Juridicas, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. He is author of papers and books in philosophy of mind and history of philosophy, and editor of Philosophical Issues from 1992 to 2000.